Capital Facts

Senate President Cullerton will be missed

Published by admin on Mon, 11/18/2019 - 11:20am

Much will change at the Statehouse when Senate President John Cullerton retires in January, a year before his term expires.

Unlike his House counterpart, Speaker Michael Madigan, Cullerton always wanted to find ways to get things done - and he got a lot done.

He's a kind, approachable man who prefers bipartisan statesmanship but relishes partisan battle whenever the times call for it. He's smart and funny and has managed to keep a diverse caucus together without resorting to intimidation, like his predecessor routinely did.

Pritzker speaks anti-corruption but crosses the line

Published by admin on Tue, 10/29/2019 - 3:24pm

Gov. JB Pritzker has lately won plaudits from even some conservative opinion-makers for making the right moves on corruption. But I am going to register an objection in a bit.
When Senate President John Cullerton dithered about what to do with Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) after the powerful Transportation Committee's Statehouse and district offices and house were raided by federal agents, Pritzker called on Sandoval to quit the chairmanship or be removed.

ComEd kills rate bill now that feds are investigating

Published by admin on Mon, 10/21/2019 - 10:32am

The political muscle of ComEd/Exelon aced its last major test in 2016, when the energy companies finally passed what one Illinois House member referred to at the time as a "multibillion dollar corporate bailout" by electricity ratepayers to keep two of its nuclear power plants open.

Talk of reforming Illinois pensions is taking place

Published by admin on Mon, 10/14/2019 - 10:39am

One of the provisions of the sweeping state pension reform law passed in 2010 has always stuck in the craw of first responders.
Police and (especially) firefighter unions fought the local government lobby for decades to increase survivor benefits, and then they watched many of those hard-fought wins get wiped away when the General Assembly decided it had to lower pension benefits for new hires to avoid a fiscal catastrophe.
The reforms produced a system known as "Tier 2," as opposed to the more generous pre-existing system, which is known as "Tier 1."

Impossible to tell what feds were looking for during raid

Published by admin on Mon, 10/07/2019 - 11:49am

The Illinois Senate recently released a heavily redacted copy of the federal search warrant served during the raid of Sen. Martin Sandoval's Statehouse office last month. And the Village of McCook also released a heavily redacted search warrant from the federal raid of its town hall.

Illinois senator under the gun after FBI raid

Published by admin on Tue, 10/01/2019 - 9:00am

At about the same time last week, Chicago-based investigators with the FBI and the IRS swooped into Democratic Sen. Marty Sandoval's district office, Statehouse office and home residence, removing boxes of documents and seizing computers.
Last November, the feds launched a simultaneous raid of super-powerful Chicago Ald. Ed Burke's city and ward offices, but they didn't raid the man's house.

Chicago mayor may be passing up two good money making opportunities

Published by admin on Tue, 09/24/2019 - 8:00am

Whatever else you may believe, you have to commend Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for trying to live up to her campaign promise of making sure that new economic development isn't concentrated in her city's downtown business district.
Her city casino proposal didn't include a downtown location because she said she wanted the development benefits to target an outlying area. Her adult-use cannabis plan also forbids retail sales downtown, for partially the same reason: Let the neighborhoods benefit.

Paying $6.61 billion in overdue bills while cutting budget won’t be easy

Published by admin on Sat, 09/14/2019 - 12:25pm

The governor's top budget people sent a memo last week to agency directors giving them a heads up about what will be required in their annual budget request submissions. They are not easy-peasy asks.

State Rep. says he won’t seek reelection and his party couldn’t be happier

Published by admin on Mon, 09/09/2019 - 8:30pm

Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) announced last week that he will not seek reelection. Instead, he said he'll likely be making a 2022 statewide bid for either U.S. Senate against Sen. Tammy Duckworth or secretary of state if Jesse White retires.
He may not be a household name, but Rep. McSweeney has been a huge thorn in Republican leadership's side since he first ran for the Illinois House in the 2012 primary.

Lightfoot wants Springfield involved with statewide bailout for Chicago

Published by admin on Sun, 09/01/2019 - 10:34am

The statement issued by Gov. JB Pritzker's office last Thursday night had some good advice for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who gave what was billed as a "State of the City" address earlier that evening.
Lightfoot had outlined the challenges facing the city, including an $838 million budget deficit and her need for Illinois government's help in changing some state laws to allow her to raise more tax revenues.